


Apples are Red, Death was Once Blue...

by deskclutter



Category: Saiyuki, Saiyuki/Sandman crossover, The Sandman
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-22
Updated: 2010-06-22
Packaged: 2017-10-10 05:35:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/96158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deskclutter/pseuds/deskclutter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Death talks about apples, among other things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apples are Red, Death was Once Blue...

**Apples are Red, Death was Once Blue...**  
_Don't apples taste great? I mean the way they taste. And the texture. And the way when you chew them they kind of crunch and the juice runs out into your mouth._  
\- Death, The High Cost of Living

  
Hi. Can I tell you a story?

Okay, here goes.

Once upon a time, there lived a pair of siblings. They had been separated as kids and had found each other again. They were really sweet. The boy took a job teaching children and the girl took the job of making their house a home. In their spare time, they made memories of their life together. They probably imagined it would last forever.

The thing about forever is that it's longer than most people give it credit for.

Tragedy struck. The girl died, and the boy went on a rampage. She had been sacrificed because they thought that she was less important than their own daughters. "You have no parents," the villagers told the boy. "You wouldn't understand." He killed them all. Mild mannered teacher today, mass murderer by nightfall. I don't think they expected that. I don't think he really expected that either.

Then he went after the monsters who had taken his sister.

Nine hundred and ninety-nine. That's how many of them he killed. He found his sister with the blood of the nine hundred and ninety-ninth still wet on his knife and on his fingers. She was in a prison and he was very glad to find her still alive. But she told him she couldn't leave because she of what was growing in her stomach. She killed herself with the knife.

He found himself face to face with her rapist, and managed to get rid of that monster. In the process, he became the thousand and first.

Or did he? Maybe he became the thousand and first when he killed the village people. Maybe it was when, as a child, he terrified his peers with his silence and cold stares. Some people would probably like to believe it was when he and his sister found each other again. I don't think so.

He'd been hurt by then, badly. He managed to get limiters that concealed the monster, in a way, but as this guy I know used to say, "the most dangerous monsters are the ones who wear a human face".

He would've seen me again then, having dragged himself down the road, blood from the trailing guts staining the road. But there was this guy, cute grin, red hair, heart bigger than the whole of the city. He picked him up, stuffed his intestines back and brought our monster back to his apartment.

"This is rather mundane for hell, isn't it?" our monster asked when he woke up. You have to understand, he's adorable, but he's not the nicest guy in the world. He can be really tactless sometimes.

Would he have gone to hell? That's not for me to answer. I don't judge anyone, because that's not what I was made to be or what I intend to do. You are your own judge and jury. I'm just the last one to wish you goodbye.

Where was I… oh yeah. The two of them lived together for a while. Someday I'll tell the redhead's story, but all you need to know is that they both believed that red was an important colour to the both of them, because blood is red.

Life has consequences. Drop an apple and gravity takes over. Steal something, and someone will come after you. And wherever you live, there'll always be taxes.

About a month later, a monk and a boy showed up to take the monster into custody. The redhead helped him get away, but like I said, life has consequences. Our monster killed the last of the villagers before that last one could kill him, but one eye was lost in the process, because our monster might be clever, but he's not very _smart_. The monk took him away, and then told the redhead that the monster was dead, because the monk wasn't very smart either. But he's not completely stupid either. "Blood is not the only thing that's red," he'd told the both of them.

The redhead went home, cut his hair. He decided that life went on, and he should live it, so he went out to buy food. He bought an apple.

"These apples are a nice shade of red," said a familiar voice, "Aren't they?" He looked up to see his former roommate. His roommate smiled at him. Still a monster, but hey. They bought two apples that day.

Because everyone only gets a lifetime, but sometimes you get second chances. You can change, sometimes.

And that's why I like apples.

* * *

Yes, the taxes joke was necessary. I am not obsessed with Discworld rly.


End file.
